Consider these signs:
In a cafeteria: “Shoes are required to eat in the cafeteria. Socks can eat any place they want.”
Outside a radiator repair shop: “Best place in town to take a leak.”
On a fence: “Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive.”
Signs can be funny, but some signs are no laughing matter if you fail you to read them or read them correctly. You can miss your blessing. On this first Sunday of Advent—the four-week Christmas recognition of the first and second coming of Christ—God gives you signs you should look for so you won’t miss God’s gift to the world: Christ—His resurrected and returning son.
In Mark 13, we see three signs you should look for: (1) Look up for victory; (2) Look around for certainty, and (3) Look out for surprise.
First, look up to the sky for a sign of victory in Christ’s return. Christ is coming back to gather his people in victory. Jesus warned the disciples to look up and pay attention to the heavens.
…the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light…26 "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect... Mark 13:264-27
REFLECTION: If the promise of Christ’s second return was today, would you miss it because on a fixation of what’s under the Christmas tree rather than who was on the cross.
APPLICATION: Be encouraged, live up to your calling according to 1 Peter 2:9.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter2:9
Be the priest you are called to be.
Be a holy nation—a theocracy.
Be a child of the light of God instead of a child of the darkness of Satan.
Second, look around for the certainty of Christ’s return like the seasons. Jesus taught in parable that you need to look around you in nature and in supernatural signs that God is true to his promise and certainty. Trust His word.
28 “Learn this parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.MK 13:28, 31.
REFLECTION: What have you trusted as a sure thing in your life: health, retirement, family over the Word of God? How much quality time have you spent in God’s word this week—daily devotion or Saturday night special?
APPLICATION: Be encouraged, live up to your calling by listening to His word. You can’t know the signs if you don’t read the signs.
Lastly, l Look out the door for the Authority who is coming back. Jesus taught in a brief parable to watch the door.
35 Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return - whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn - 36 or else he might find you asleep when he returns suddenly. Mark 13:35,36
REFLECTION: If Jesus came back on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or next week, what would he find you doing—feeding the hungry or fueling your appetite for a bigger house, faster car, fancier electronic toy?
Consider what he would find Harold and Patti Anglin doing with their lives. These parents who adopted Zack—born with no hands and feet—they raised him to see the possible in the impossible. So, when Zack wanted to be a pilot, they said. “The sky’s the limit.” After many rejections from flight schools, Zack got his wings. He now trains would-be pilot to fly, thanks to his parents who lived out a calling great than themselves.
APPLCATION: Live alert. Christ will come as a thief in the night. And thieves post no signs.
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